Buzzwords of the Month

"Workforce Housing" - a.k.a. cardboard multi-family (or I suppose, 'cabbage row' single family detached housing) designed to "affordable" by the new crop of urban professionals with their shiny new "green collar" jobs. And the old-school blue collar jobs too.

I started hearing this term a few months ago... and it was all over IBS_2008. Having grown up in a company town where my uncle built a good share of company housing (A.K.A "Workforce Housing" from last-century) this is really nothing new. People working somewhere need a place to live near where they work... or eventually you don't have any worker-bees. Ask people struggling to work in Aspen or Palm Springs what their daily commute is like, and how long they'd like to keep making it to keep their $10/hr (or less) jobs. With $4-5/gallon gas looming (and other energy and transportation costs rising proportionally) - that whole scene is not long for the world IMO.

Of course, "Affordable" means if you're moving into the San Fran bay area maybe you'll only have to mortgage $350/SF, down from today's $450/SF. Meanwhile, in Canton, OH, it's still tough for builders to to get $100/SF on a hard cost of $60. This speaks to the "intrinsic value" of housing, and what I call the "Beanie Baby Trend" - but that's another post for another day.